Mini Coupe Concept and Mini Roadster Concept

With these new 2-seat Minis, it's all about driving fun.

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The first Mini made its public debut in August of 1959, so it's fitting that 50 years later Mini has unveiled the Mini Coupe Concept and Mini Roadster Concept, which the company says represent "concentrated driving pleasure."

The Mini Coupe Concept's styling certainly is dramatic, most specifically its heavily raked windshield and new aluminum roof that angles steeply rearward. The roof flows into a unique downforce-inducing wing at the top of the hatchback's rear window.

Owing to the removal of the rear seat, the 2-seat Mini Coupe Concept's cargo capacity has increased from the standard 5.7 cu. ft. to 8.8. At 66.3 in. wide, the Mini Coupe Concept is identical in width to the standard Mini, but the Concept is 0.6 in. longer (146.2 in.) and sports a 2.0-in.-lower roof height (53.4 in.).

The Mini Roadster Concept, also a 2-seater, looks much like a Mini Cooper S up to the steeply sloped A-pillars. With its roof up, the car is characterized by a notchback silhouette. When the compact soft top is in the lowered position, the waistline of the car, which raises as it goes rearward, comes into clearer view. Of note, the luggage capacity of the Mini Roadster Concept remains exactly the same with the top up or down. An automatically deploying rollbar teams with a reinforced windshield header to increase rollover protection.

Officials said the front-drive Mini Coupe Concept was "designed to accommodate even the most powerful engine currently available in the Mini," meaning the 208-bhp turbocharged 1.6-liter John Cooper Works version. We'd like to see that engine in the Mini Roadster Concept as well, but for now these cars remain concepts designed to measure public reaction. How do you feel about these Minis?